Soviet Attacks Israel at U.N. Security Council; is Rebuked by Israel

Israel today sharply upbraided the Soviet Union for its pro-Syrian position in the Security Council regarding the Syrian-Israeli clash on November 13 and accused the USSR of acting as “counsel” for Syria instead of being “a judge” as between two disputants.

The Israeli rebuke against the USSR came this afternoon just before the Security Council–which has debated the latest Syrian-Israel charges of aggression for six sessions since the middle of last month–recessed again subject to the call of its president without taking any action.

Michael S. Comay, Israel’s permanent representative here, addressed the Council and replied in part to a violent attack against Israel voiced in the morning session by the USSR’s chief delegate, Dr. Nicolai T. Federenko. The Israeli representative spoke after Adlai E. Stevenson, chairman of the United States delegation, had delivered an impassioned plea for peace between Israel and Syria.

“I regret the tone of the USSR intervention this morning,” Mr. Comay said. “It is discouraging, when a small nation appeals to the Security Council, to find a representative of a great power, a permanent member of this Council, acting more as counsel for one party rather than as judge. We repudiate absolutely the Soviet Union’s contention that we were responsible for the incident on November 13 or that we are responsible for the general situation in the area.”

Referring to the fact that Mr. Federenko had charged Israel with following a “strategic doctrine” of conflict, Mr. Comay said: “What happened was not a result of any mythical strategic doctrine on our part. We want peace and until peace is achieved, we want the right to live.”

MOSCOW DELEGATE CHARGES ISRAEL WITH ‘AGGRESSION ON A LARGE SCALE’

Mr. Fedorenko said in his speech that Israel had undertaken “provocative actions” leading to the chain of events which the Security Council was discussing. He charged Israel with undertaking “a massive violation of Syrian airspace” and with “deliberately planning and implementing aggression on a large scale against Syria.”

Mr. Comay pointed out that in the report to the Security Council dealing with the latest clash, Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization had mentioned specifically “Syria’s refusal to resolve its conflict with Israel.” The chief Israeli delegate recalled that in the Security Council in August 1963, it was only the Soviet exercise of its veto that prevented the Security Council from adopting a resolution condemning Syria for the murder of two Israeli farmers at Almagor.

“I ask the Soviet Union,” said Mr. Comay: “was that also another example of Israeli aggression? Only the Soviet veto on that occasion was the roadblock to a vote of censure against Syria. We deplore the fact.” Before voicing his disagreement with Mr. Federenko, Mr. Comay paid warm tribute to the memory of the late Arkady Sobolev, Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR who died yesterday.

Mr. Comay, in his address, thanked various members of the Security Council who had participated in the current debate and have called for conciliation of the current Syrian-Israeli dispute. He expressed Israel’s particular gratitude to the foreign minister of Brazil, who, this morning, asked the Council to take a conciliatory attitude, telling the 11-member body of Brazil’s “cordial and most fruitful relations with Israel.”

Ambassador Stevenson told the Council that it must concentrate now upon pacification rather than blame. “We in the Council,” said Mr. Stevenson, “cannot dictate peace. We can only recommend, urge, plead. We urge both sides hereafter to submit complaints to the UNTSC rather than to start shooting.” The Council, he said, should endorse Gen. Bull’s proposals for an independent resurvey of portions of the disputed Israel-Syrian border “because upon the success of limited surveys depends more general tranquility.”

Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Abba Eban, who is temporarily taking the place of the ailing Foreign Minister Golda Meir at the UN General Assembly session, will meet Saturday with U. S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The conference will take place in Mr. Eban’s suite at the Plaza Hotel. Mr. Eban is also undertaking arrangements for a possible early meeting here with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.